A Bog Woman Poem

I became a little obsessed by bog bodies when working at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in 2024 and 2025, not least because news came through of an Iron Age bog woman being found in Bellaghy on my first day at work. I have written a series of poems on this discovery. Here is Part II part of the first of them, 'Ballymacombs More Woman'. Archaeologists don't name bog bodies, but I named her Bríd after attending at conference at which the significance of this name in ancient Ireland was explained. Here, Bríd converses directly with Seamus Heaney.

Ballymacombs More Woman
After Seamus Heaney

II
Some day, I will rise
and whisper you wise
that the only story ever told
was that of sacrifice,
for you initiated, conjured
me in an inky, inky river.
Come, come with me
to the edge of the tober mór,
and I will acquaint you
with a starry night,
where no eyes white,
like a goddess, stare back.
I am Bríd.
Picture me kneeling –
la tête coupée.

Published in Ulster University's Paperclip V, 2025

In keeping with my exploration of Alice Pike Barney, I have chosen 'Pagan Dancer', to accompany this poem: 1901, pastel on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1957.